A stained statue at the edge of a car park, an unrecognisable bust and a modest gravestone in Ipswich. IAN HERBERT asks: Why is England's only immortal manager barely celebrated? A visit to Ipswich revealed only melancholy reminders of 1966 mastermind By Ian Herbert Published: 12:00 EDT, 28 May 2024 | Updated: 12:00 EDT, 28 May 2024 e-mail 1 View comments It's 25 years since the man who delivered English football's most golden summer was laid to rest in typically understated fashion – eleven floral tributes, with Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' played on a three-manual pipe organ – and the scale of his accomplishment seems greater than ever. No-one imagined, when Sir Alf Ramsey took the country to the top of the world, that there would be a wait of at least 60 years – and quite possibly a fair few more – for football's ultimate prize to come home again.
Or that a men's European Championships trophy would prove so elusive that the next manager to bring one of those back – just perhaps Gareth Southgate , six weeks from now – will achieve a kind of immortality. Ramsey is the only man to have delivered for England yet he was not, and never has been, lionised. While other football heroes seem to have grown bigger and been more loved as the years have rolled on - Bobby Moore, holding up the World Cup to all who pass down Wembley Way; Sir Matt Busby, imperious on his lofty plinth outside Old Trafford – the mastermind of 1966 is barely celebrated at all.
The understated graves.
